Britain’s ambassador to Uzbekistan has criticized its government for human rights abuses.

Envoy Craig Murray told visiting journalists that the government of President Islam Karimov was guilty of brutal human rights abuses, The Guardian of London said.

“The worst Soviet features such as secret police, censorship, torture in prisons are still in place here” in the remote Central Asian nation and former Soviet republic, Murray said. “It is time to fight for democracy,” he added.

Murray’s comments may displease the Bush administration. Karimov has been a key American ally in the “war on terror” and allowed the United States to use an important Uzbek air base as a springboard for its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.